Abele, County Board member at odds over economic development programs

Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele's administration has dragged its feet on two economic development programs that originated with the County Board, supervisors said Monday.

Abele heatedly denied the charge.

Though initial proposals for a $1 million small-business loan fund and a $1 million job training program were approved more than a year ago, the loan program hasn't gotten off the ground. The training program was launched this year, but the $167,000 paid so far to the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership/BIG STEP has gone mainly for staff salaries and office supplies, the board's Economic and Community Development Committee was told.

"It leads you to question their sincerity when they say how important job creation and economic development is," Supervisor Theo Lipscomb Sr. said of Abele's economic development staff.

"They've wasted a year," said Lipscomb, who co-authored the loan fund and training programs.

Abele bristled at the accusation, saying supervisors resisted his efforts to make the programs more accountable for results.

"We wanted metrics, they didn't," Abele said, speaking of Lipscomb and co-authors of the training program. "We wanted more of a process (spelled out), they didn't," Abele said.

The county auditor has set up a meeting with the nonprofit to discuss the need for more thorough accounting of how the training money is being spent. So far, the county has only received a list from BIG STEP showing it spent $86,294 on broad categories such as salaries, fringe benefits and administrative costs, Abele said. BIG STEP Executive Director Earl Buford said that was a preliminary report. He'll file the agency's first quarterly activity report with the county this month, he said.

Abele said he couldn't start on the training program until money for the sale of county greenhouses came through in October. The state is paying the county $14.7 million for the greenhouses because the site is needed for the Zoo Interchange rebuilding project. Funding for the training and loan programs were linked to county land sales.

Lipscomb said the county could have started detailed planning for the training program in March, when the county knew it would get millions for the greenhouses and the sale of a former Park East Freeway parcel for a soccer field and parking garage for the Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Abele faulted Lipscomb and former Supervisor Eyon Biddle Sr. for attending only one of six or seven planning sessions on the job training program. Lipscomb denied missing any meetings and said he had only been aware of one meeting.

Lipscomb and other supervisors also said they were surprised by a recommendation to have the county contract with the Milwaukee Economic Development Corp. to run the small-business loan program. The corporation has its own $70 million business revolving loan fund.

The county executive has repeatedly said development was a top priority. His most visible efforts have been on working to attract projects for the Park East Freeway corridor and to redevelop the Transit Center on the lakefront for the Couture, a high-rise apartment and hotel project.

Those efforts took priority over the small-business loan program, said Brian Taffora, the county's economic development director.

Taffora said advice from the county comptroller that money for the business loan program should have been authorized as part of the county's operating rather than capital budget also delayed the program's implementation.

Lipscomb accused Taffora of "trying to twist history or the facts" when he told the economic development panel that work on the programs couldn't have started sooner.

Jill Didier, the county's economic development coordinator, attempted to play peacemaker, saying she took responsibility for the loan program's status.

"I assure you I don't want anything to fail," Didier said. She noted that working with just $1 million, the small-business loan program wouldn't "put thousands of people to work."

The economic development panel voted 5-1 to endorse having the county enter a trust agreement by April with the MEDC and develop guidelines for the county business loan program. If an agreement isn't reached by then, the money would shift back to the county.

The committee also unanimously backed creation of a trust fund for the training money. Supervisors also called for detailed quarterly reports from BIG STEP, a nonprofit job recruitment and training program overseen by business and labor representatives.

About Steve Schultze

Schultze joined the Milwaukee Journal staff in 1985, covering state government and politics from the paper's state capitol bureau in Madison. He also served as Madison bureau chief for five years. Following the Journal-Sentinel merger in 1995, Schultze shifted to the paper's investigative/enterprise team, where he co-authored series on abusive teachers in the Milwaukee Public Schools, influence peddling in the administration of Gov. Tommy Thompson and shortcomings of a $3 billion regional sewer system upgrade. In 2007, he began covering Milwaukee County government. Schultze is a graduate of the University of Colorado School of Journalism.